Duette excited for park, fire house

DUETTE — The Duette Volunteer Fire Department operates out of a pole barn on State Road 62.

Young Duette families with children drive into nearby Hillsborough County to find a park for their kids to play.

But all that will soon be history for this town in northeast Manatee.

Mosaic, the mining company that has extracted tons of phosphate from Duette land for years to make crop nutrition products, will donate $2.8 million for a 8,785-square-foot new Duette Fire Station and adjacent 75-acre community park on a tract of land it had reclaimed.

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About 100 residents attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the two facilities Friday on Bunker Hill Loop, near State Road 62.

Guests and dignitaries — including Manatee County commissioners Carol Whitmore, Larry Bustle and John Chappie — sat under a tent while, in front of them, shined the centerpiece of the park — a 19-acre lake filled with Florida speckled perch, blue gill, largemouth bass and native plants such as pickerel weed, duck potato and fire flag.

The lake was once a 25-foot-deep pit where phosphate ore was mined.

After mining, reclamation crews reshaped the land and planted trees and vegetation, said Bo Davis, Mosaic’s vice president of phosphate operations.

Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Natural Resources Department, attended the groundbreaking and had praise for Mosaic’s reclaimed efforts.

A park pavilion is due to be finished by December with athletic fields coming in January, Davis said.

The park will consist of soccer and softball fields, picnic areas, a walking trail and playground. The lake will have an handicapped-accessible canoe launch and a dock for fishing, Davis said.

The project is expected to be finished by March.

The agreement also includes a $319,000 commitment by Mosaic to be paid over three years for operating and maintaining the park.

Betty Glassburn, a retired Manatee County employee and longtime Duette resident, remembers when she and fellow Duette residents Pat Carlton, Dave Walker and the late Bob Holbrook signed papers to create a volunteer fire department in 1982.

“It started out as a Mighty 4-H’ers of Duette project,” Glassburn said.

The official seal of the fire department still bears the green clover of 4-H Clubs.